Handmade dolls

These are a selection of handmade dolls, not included in the little crochet doll page.

A lot of the dolls I make are small one of a kind creations. Although the doll itself is a written pattern, the clothing is always made without writing the patterns down. This way, no two dolls are truly alike.

These dolls and animals were felt designs I created. The doll has an additional wardrobe for her clothing.

Some of these dolls are so small that I have to work in micro crochet, this dolls shoes are 1cm in length. The doll is jointed at the arms and neck and the legs and arms are bendable.

But even at 1cm, the details are still as important, I’ve found card making buttons small enough to fit.

For me, making dolls is all about the enjoyment of the owner. Dolls should be more than fashion models, they should be something the child (or adult) can take everywhere. Dolls for little girls is an important concept, a doll should look like a doll.

One thing I wasn’t keen on was the eyes, so I’ve begun experimenting on painting eyes directly onto the faces.

Another idea I played with is adding a heart to the doll.

I’ve started playing with dolls of other materials, these large dolls have very detailed faces but are quite large, I’m not too keen on large dolls.

I’m currently working on traditional Waldorf style dolls. These dolls are stuffed with wool which gives warmth to the child and takes on the scents familiar to the child. Traditionally the dolls have minimal detail in the faces, but I’m doing some experiments with how much detail I want to add and the size I’m comfortable with.

Like this:

Post navigation

One thought on “Handmade dolls”

Hi Bettyhill, you’re dolls are beautiful. I particularly like the idea of adding a heart. My daughter has a heart condition so we often talk about hearts and where they are etc. She has a commercial puppy that she stuffed herself and added a heart at that point, so she knows it’s inside.